Three members of the Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) were attacked in Kratie province on Thursday by men believed to be involved in illegal logging, PLCN activists said yesterday.
“We were leaving Prey Lang and went to a grocery store around 8:30pm,” said PLCN’s Ya Smak. “After we left the store . . . I was checking my motorbike and I heard someone shouting insults.”
The activists were then assaulted by two men as a woman accompanying the attackers watched, he said. Smak said he recognised the assailants as two men who work as wood processors and are suspected of illegal logging.
According to local activists, members of PLCN are frequently threatened for their work. Ernst Jurgensen, of the NGO Danmission, which works with the PLCN, said he receives frequent reports about such threats and attacks. “Some receive phone calls from people threatening to kill them. Some are threatened by neighbours . . . others are attacked during forest patrols,” he said
Meanwhile, PCLN’s Pi Chey said activists don’t trust the police to assist them.
“We are often attacked,” he said. “But the law does not help.”
